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On Monday February 19, His Excellency Governor John Nyagarama held a meeting with officials of Finnish company, M/S Catalyst Technology. They discussed a possible partnership with the county government on solid waste management through the construction of a Waste- To-Energy- Power plant. The initiative aims to engage technology transfer in the field of Solid Waste Management.

In attendance were officials from M/S Catalyst Technology accompanied by their local representatives David Okello,Edward Ngoko, and Fred Nyakweba. They expressed confidence in the project which aims to use the technology developed in Finland in the construction of a waste- to -energy plant on a 20 acre piece of land identified at Sironga. In a brief demonstration, they explained how 300, 500 or 1000 tons of waste can produce electrical energy that can easily be sold to the national grid.

According to the Executive Committee member for Environment, Water and Energy, Nyamira County has the capacity to produce an estimated 300 to 450 tons of waste per day . The entrepreuners recommended the 300 tons of waste plant. They also said that they can finance the project and work to recover their investments in 20-30 years. The county government on its part, has undertaken a feasibility study on landfill and is awaiting licencing from NEMA. It has also finalised an Environmental Impact Social Assessment (EISA) on the project.

Also present at the meeting was the County Public Service Board Chairperson Mr Peter Nyakundi, Chief of Staff Job Ong’ombe, Deputy Chief of Staff Kefah Mocheche and Deputy County Secretary Thomas Nyariki and MCA Hon George Abuga.

Nyamira County government is registering women at its hospitals in an initiative through which pregnant women will receive free maternal and child care services.The programme, which is an extension of the national government’s Linda Mama maternity drive, will provide ante-natal care, caesarean section births, post-natal care and skilled health personnel during delivery for all mothers in the county.“We are requesting pregnant women to register in any of the health facilities in Nyamira County through which they will enjoy the free maternal healthcare,” Governor John Nyagarama said during the launch of the programme on Wednesday at the Nyamira County Referral Hospital.According to data from the County’s Department of Health Services, skilled deliveries have increased to 74.9 per cent up from 52 per cent in 2013 with fully immunized child coverage increasing to 87.9% up from 81% in 2013.Governor John Nyagarama also pledged to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the residents in the County are covered by NHIF.“Our Department of Health Services has formed a joint committee with NHIF to work towards increasing enrolment into the NHIF schemes in Nyamira from the current 15 per cent to over 50 per cent,” The Governor said.During the launch, the Governor noted that the county has made progress in healthcare delivery since 2013.“Data obtained from the Kenya Demographic Health Survey, indicates that Nyamira County beats all the other counties in Nyanza region in key health indicators. We have the lowest fertility rate for women aged 15 to 49 years and we hold the record for the highest percentage of currently married women using a modern method of contraception,” Mr Nyagarama said.He also noted that more women deliver live births in health facilities in Nyamira County than anywhere in Nyanza and that the county has the highest per cent of children aged 12- 23 months who have received all basic vaccinations plus the pneumococcal vaccine.

The truck, which cost Sh29 million comes with a generator and a ladder that can reach the top of a 50-storey building. The truck was fabricated in Germany.

"We are proud of this milestone. This is just the beginning. In the next financial year, we will procure three more smaller fire engines that will be based in each in each of the sub-county units to respond to emergencies on time," said H.E. Governor John Obiero Nyagarama.

SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR JOHN NYAGARAMA DURING THE DISTRIBUTION OF TEXT BOOKS TO SELECT SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NYAMIRA COUNTY ON JANUARY 10, 2018

Ministry of Education officials present, Officials from the Kenya Literature Bureau, The Leader of Majority, Nyamira County, The Area MCA, Manga Ward, County Officials, Students and members of the public, Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured to join you the Kenya Literature Bureau Board members, Ministry of Education officials and other education stakeholders in witnessing the distribution of text books to select schools in Nyamira County.

This initiative which I join in support of the national government’s commitment to provide free secondary education through the provision of learning and instructional materials will ultimately lead to the improvement of learning outcomes across our schools countrywide. That is why today marks an important milestone in the transformative education reforms for our nation. As a County government, we do applaud the Ministry of Education for this initiative. This initiative starts with the distribution of books to Form One Students of Nyambaria Boys National School, Sironga National School and Tombe Secondary School, who are reporting to school for the first time.

As a County Government, education is one of many areas of focus. As a Governor, everywhere I go, I do remind our people to take their children to schools. When you educate a child, you set your homestead on a journey away from poverty.

Although education largely remains a national government function, as a County Government we have continued to support the education of our children. In my first term in office, we issued bursaries worth over Sh100 million to thousands of learners from needy families.

I wish to announce that we will expand the Nyamira County Education Bursary Scheme so as to reach more needy families. To the students gathered here today, both the county and national government continue to invest in your education because soon you will become our innovators, creators, academicians, doctors, lawyers, engineers, social workers, teachers and etc.

I do applaud the academic performance of our schools both in the 2017 KCSE and KCPE. Primary Schools like Tonga Omonori, Eronge Adventist and St. Andrews Kaagwa made us proud as a County in their KCPE performance. I also wish to congratulate Nyambaria National School, Sironga National School, Gekomoni and Nyakemincha Secondary Schools for their exemplary academic performance in the 2017 KCSE results.

I also congratulate the school management of Tombe Girls through whose effort eight students qualified to join university in the 2017 KCSE results. However, the performance of our schools remains worrying. We are not doing enough to send more students to universities. I challenge all the education stakeholders to come together with the aim of finding a winning formula in boosting the academic performance of our students. Good performance in education calls for all of us to work together. I am happy that the new school principals posted to schools in Nyamira County just to mention a few, Madam Rose Waswa the new Principal of Sironga Girls and Boaz Owino who has taken over as the head of Nyambaria National School have smoothly reported to office. I urge all of you to offer them support.

As a County Government, we will continue to support education reforms. As you might be aware, the County Government of Nyamira has employed many teachers to various positions. We truly remain a partner in furthering the development of teachers. To the Kenya Literature Bureau and other publishers, we look forward to partnering with you in improving the education standards in our county. We also hope that in the future you can donate books to our county library.

Lastly, it’s my sincere hope the academic performance in both KCSE and KCPE examination results for our schools in Nyamira County will improve this year. So as to help in creating a more conducive learning environment for the students of Tombe Girls Secondary Schools, I will donate two water tanks to the institution to help them in dealing with water shortage problems.

I leave you with the words of Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

His Excellency Governor John Nyagarama and his Deputy Amos Nyaribo are attending the Governors' Induction Week at Diani Reef Beach Hotel . The three-day event ends on Saturday December 16. During the event, the Governor will interact and hold talks with other Governors and their deputies from the other 46 Counties and with various guests among them Mr Siddharth Chatterjee, UNDP Resident Representative, Dr Ludeki Chweya, Director Kenya School of Government, Dr Jane Kiringai, Chairperson Commission for Revenue Allocation, Dr Ismail Fahmy Shaiye, CEO Water Services Trust Fund, Dr Tina Dooley-Jones Acting Mission Director USAID, Mr Diarietous Gaye County Director World Bank, Mr Peter Bowles County Director DFID and and Ms Zebib Kavuma County Director UoN Women. The Governor will use the induction ceremony to seek for more partnerships and collaborations for the County Government of Nyamira.

“The People of Nyamira County,Honourable Elected Leaders of Our People,The County Commissioner Nyamira,Fellow Compatriots,Distinguished Guests,Ladies and Gentlemen:Today, we stand to honour those who fought for our independence from the white man believing and trusting that if we took the steering wheel of leadership in our country, we could become a happy and prosperous nation. In our own country, families and entire villages were destroyed, women and children hounded into concentration camps.Jamhuri Day represents the day we attained our independence. This is the day we honour those who fought for our freedom. We should never forget their efforts. We should never get tired from honouring our independence heroes. We come together to express our profound gratitude for the sacrifices and contributions made by those who had the courage to face up to the white man and tell him, ‘return to Europe.’As a community, we too participated in the struggle.Historians put it that the white man arrived in Gusiiland about 1904 and soon after our warriors carrying only spears and with the courage to protect our land faced the White Man’s guns.Our brave warriors went on with the struggle in what historians call as the “Gusii revolts” that lasted till 1914, forcing the withdrawal of Germans troops from Gusiiland at the beginning of World War 1.Those who have visited Manga and other areas in Gusii have toured part of this great history of our country.

After the first liberation, we underwent the second liberation when brave young men and women including university students took to the streets and fought for a return to multi-party democracy. Together, they stood united against tyranny.About six years ago, I made a difficult decision to offer myself as a candidate for the position of Governor as a way of contributing to the country’s third liberation, that of socio-economic emancipation.Of course, by then, I didn’t know the hard challenges that lay ahead.Together with my team, we not only inherited a system that was broken but one which was almost non-existent. The Nyamira Town Council, which we inherited as a County, was dysfunctional. We didn’t have offices. We took over six months to have the County Executive Committee in office. We basically were starting the development and transformation of our county from zero.If you had a patient at Nyamira Hospital, you had to carry your own water for drinking and bathing, your own beddings and a sheet to cover the doors of the toilets because the hospital toilets did not have doors. Majority of our roads were impassable. In one of our major towns, Keroka, you could not access with a car the nearby Metamaywa town using any of the feeder roads. Our farmers still relied and kept the humped cows which yielded very poor milk returns because in their lifetimes no one had ever visited their homes to advice them about artificial insemination of cattle. Our little children starting to go to school, learnt under a shade of trees or in shabby mud-walled classes that were not conducive.Ladies and gentlemen,I am proud to say that we have greatly improved the quality of life of our people and now, I start my second term as your governor in a county that is functional.Once again, we thank the people of Nyamira County for putting their faith, trust and hope in us. We are greatly humbled. We promise to deliver on this enormous responsibility.

I also thank the Almighty God for giving me the opportunity to be used as a vessel in the service of his people.You can see what we have achieved as a county government.For instance, Keroka town is slowly becoming a 24 hour economy as a result of the tireless work, time and resources that our County government has invested in the town. Our solar street lighting project in which we have installed over 400 solar lights in various towns in our county have literally changed lives in various market centres and towns, other towns such as Gesima, Kebirigo, Chebirat, Nyamira, Konate ,Miruka and Kijauri have also been lit.Our farmers are now a happier lot. In an article on October 10, 2017, the Daily Nation recognized the fast recovery of the dairy sector in Nyamira in which the average production is approaching 70 million litres in a year.Our mothers can now give birth in Nyamira County, educate the same child in any of our model early childhood education centres where we have employed about 2,000 teachers.It’s now possible for a doctor in any part of the world to coordinate various complicated procedures with our doctors at the recently upgraded Nyamira County Referral Hospital courtesy of the newly-installed telemedicine facilities.Our road network in which we managed to open and gravel over over 600km of roads is the envy of other county governments. You can now walk or drive from Isecha to Mborogo, through Nyamotentemi, across Bobembe, down to Nyabomite, a fete that was almost impossible before we came to office.Our water projects like sinking a borehole at Marindi, has not only saved our women from walking over a kilometer to fetch water but has also improved the performance of students at Marindi secondary school where now like dozens of other schools across the county, students have access to water at the institution. Many of our schools have now been supplied with water tanks.

Such development initiatives, however, little or big they may seem, form our liberation today. That although good or ill fortune, as a county, we never lose sight of the quest and ideals which give us strength as one people. And on every Jamhuri day, we gather to celebrate how far we have come from and how far we are yet to go.Ladies and gentlemen;We remind ourselves of the words in the holy book of Luke 12 verse 48, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”So as to handle this enormous responsibility, together with my deputy, His Excellency Amos Nyaribo, we now have a County Executive Committee that is a blend of both old and new who in our genuine estimation exhibit traits of requisite experiences and qualifications.To my government officers,Whether junior or senior, the service of Nyamira County means the service of thousands who suffer from poverty, ignorance, disease and inequality of opportunities. As the First Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru said, “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.”Today, I request you to be that minister who burns the midnight oil; to be that cleaner; who hates sleep; To be that social worker; who cares for the sick as if they are their own; To be that accountant who prudently cares for every penny as if he is taking care of his inheritance.To the people of Nyamira, whose representatives we are,

this is no time for petty and destructive criticism. This is my last tenure as your Governor. It’s my prayer and I am optimistic that I will remain the governor of the people of Nyamira till 2022. I am re-energized to work for you.I envisage being that leader who at the end of my tenure in 2022 will not just be remembered as the first governor of Nyamira County but as a leader who brought change to his people.I intend to retire gifting our people a county in which when a little boy is born into the bleakest family living in a mud-thatched house with no electricity , no piped water, no food on the table , will know that he has the chance to succeed as anybody else. Because he is born in a county through which the daughters or sons of the low or privileged can rise to become whatever they imagine to be!I want to be remembered for the dreams of young people we help to realize, through issuing bursaries to help lessen their academic financial burden and small loans and business opportunities to support their business ventures.I want to be remembered for the added years of comfort for our aged and vulnerable groups through our social protection support services.I want to be remembered as the leader who introduced diabetes dialyses services, CT scan services, and who significantly reduced infant maternal deaths.I want to be remembered as the leader who helped reduce the distance that our women walked to fetch water.I want to be remembered as the leader who embraced agribusiness as a best model for our farmers.I want to be remembered as the leader who put a shade over the heads of boda boda riders and women in the market shielding them from direct heat from the sun and rains.

As government, we will not be resting till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of Nyamira what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great county on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard.Ladies and gentlemen,the county government of Nyamira continues to invest more in the priority areas of health, agriculture and roads.If you invest in health, you create wealth. If you invest in agriculture, you ensure food security. If you invest in roads, you better communication and open up remote areas to more opportunities.The county government has flagged the following projects:1. Multi-million upgrading of Nyamira County Referral Hospital. This includes completion or construction of 80-bed ward, doctors’ plaza, three operation room theatres and installation of an oxygen generating plant.2. Purchase of a borehole drilling machine so that we are able to sink more boreholes at reduced costs, make the sinking or boreholes more expansive and faster.3. Construction of a 40-megawatt solar generating plant at Sironga in a public private partnership. Already feasibility studies and surveys have been finalized.4. Construction of a County Headquarter so that we can have adequate space for our staff and provide more amenities to the public.5. Launch of satellite digital village hubs through which our youth can be able to work online. The hubs will also support Business Product Outsourcing (BPOs).6. In order to improve our county headquarters, we will construct about three kilometres of bitumen road in Nyamira town. This project will be expanded to other towns.7. Establishing a County Revolving Education Fund and increasing the allocation for the County Bursary Scheme so as to support the education of more learners.8. Purchase of two fire-fighting engines to help in disaster response and management.

Ladies and gentlemen,Our development agenda will not be achieved without hard work and sacrifice. Since we came into office about four months now, our officers have worked extra hard for the progress of our county. We appreciate your service.I challenge all of you to go out there and seek helpful collaborations and partnerships that will help our County to prosper.I challenge our youth to be more innovative and bring in fresh ideals that will propel our county to greatness. As a government, we will walk that journey with you. We will continue to empower you with the skills you need to work harder, learn more and reach higher.I challenge you in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”As I near the end of my speech,I am proud of our County Assembly which has proved to be a key arm in the development agenda of our county.The County government also enjoys a cordial working relationship not just with the Honorable MCAs but with the other elected leaders-Honourables Okong’o Omogeni, Joash Nyamoko, Shadrack Mose, Jerusha Momanyi, Vincent Kemosi and Ben Momanyi, -who represent us in parliament.A County cannot succeed when we don’t work together. Nyamira thrives when all our leaders can work and offer service to the people. As leaders, we must be the source of hope to the poor, the marginalized and the sick.As a nation, we have survived many periods of anxiety in the last 54 years. This election year has seen the country almost divide into two.

The patriots of 1963 gave us a republic, entrusting each generation to keep it safe. This is our time. We must stand strong. We must stand for Kenya.2017 has arguably been the most difficult election year in our country’s history. Yet as a people we still have high hopes for this country. Together, we must continue to expand the horizons of our democracy. Together, we must struggle to build new roads and networks.Together, we must take care of our vulnerable and protect the weak, disabled and underprivileged.We have been tested by the 2017 presidential election crisis and we have proved our resilience.We must have the courage and spirit of those who fought for independence. And like the belief they had in the ancestors and gods, also hope that that star will guide us in these trying times; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, from the great Gusii warrior Otenyo who speared the invading white man to Dedan Kimanthi and others who gave us a nation with the promise of a land free of poverty, disease and ignorance.Let’s pray for this nation. Let’s pray for our leaders, President Uhuru Kenyatta and The Right Honorable Raila Odinga. Let God give them the wisdom to guide us out of the current political crisis.We cannot give up.And lastly,I take this chance to wish all Nyamira County residents, those in diaspora and all Kenyans blessed holidays, a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.

To other counties, we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.And to Nyamira, our much-loved county, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.I wish you all happy Jamhuri Day celebrations. God Bless Nyamira County. God Bless Kenya.”